Facts

Plaintiff Ocean View School District is an elementary school district located in Huntington Beach. Since 1967, the School District has operated the Oak View Elementary School. Defendants owned and operated the Rainbow Transfer Station across the street from the elementary school. The Transfer Station began as a small four-acre transfer station, but has since expanded to an approximately 18-acre transfer station and material recovery facility that handles municipal solid waste, recyclables, green waste, and construction and demolition debris. While some of the operations take place in structures, the main garbage handling facility is only partially enclosed, while green waste and construction and demolition debris are stored and loaded outdoors.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiff contended defendants have owned and operated the Rainbow Transfer Station since 1983. The School District alleged that the Transfer Station generated excessive odors, dust, and noise, and attracted seagulls and other pests, so that the operation constituted a nuisance, and caused trespass to the neighboring elementary school.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Defendants have owned and operated the Rainbow Transfer Station since 1965. Defendants contended that the transfer station was operated using industry standard best practices to protect air quality and prevent pest infestations, and that the operations did not create any nuisance or trespass. Furthermore, the elementary school's facilities have been subject to inspection by the Orange County Department of Education each year for the past several years in order to assess the School District's own rating of the facilities as "exemplary" on its "School Accountability Report Card" for the school. The Orange County Department of Education did not find any of the nuisance conditions alleged during any inspection. The Orange County Health Care Agency, acting as the local enforcement agency for the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle, also renewed Rainbow's Solid Waste Facility Permit while the litigation was pending despite the allegations and this decision was upheld on appeal to the Director of CalRecycle who found the School District's allegations to be without support. The School District had also contracted with defendants to handle collection and transfer of the District's own waste, including waste at the elementary school, during the relevant time period and the School District was aware the elementary school's waste was being transported across the street where it was processed.

Result

Without admitting liability, defendants agreed to complete enclosure of the solid waste operations at the Transfer Station in state of the art buildings with ventilation and filtration to prevent the escape of dust and odors as required by a stipulated abatement order issued in 2015 by the Hearing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and certain ancillary improvements requested by the school district. Defendants' parent company further agreed to donate $4 million to be used solely for the District's construction of a gym and for the naming rights to the gym.

Other Information

Defendants have agreed to pay the bulk of the school district's attorney fees, in the amount of $2.15 million. According to defense, in addition to attorney fees and costs, the case settled with $0.00 going to plaintiff in compensatory and punitive damages. According to plaintiff, the improvements to enclose the operations and other mitigation measures agreed to by defendants have an estimated cost of $18 million. The remainder of the school district's fees have been absorbed by Connor, Fletcher & Hedenkamp on a pro-bono basis. MEDIATOR: Hon. James P. Gray, ret., ADR Services Inc. DISCOVERY REFEREE: Hon. David C. Velasquez, ret., Judicate West. FILING DATE: Dec. 10, 2013.